Critical Theories of Popular Culture

  “Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow”: & Juliet reimagines Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet & Juliet , a comedic musical brought to the stage of London’s West End in 2019, rewrites the ending of William Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy Romeo and Juliet and explores the scenario: What would happen if Juliet didn’t commit suicide and sacrifice her life for Romeo? In & Juliet , Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, opens the play by proposing a new journey for Juliet where she makes autonomous decisions and gains agency over her love life. In addition to the feminist narrative, the play features a diverse cast and queer love stories. Playwrights David West Read and Max Martin experiment between high and popular culture through & Juliet’s soundtrack composed entirely of pop music anthems. Through transforming Romeo and Juliet , a play now considered an element of “high” culture, into & Juliet, a progressive romantic comedy, the playwrights sought to incorporate new voices into ...

  Cultural visibility and female invisibility: The harmful duality endorsed by Bad Bunny’s “I Like It” and “La Romana”   Benito Martínez Ocasio (Bad Bunny) is emblematic of Latino success and power. As the top streamed Reggaetón artist of all time, the first non-native English speaking MTV artist of the year, and Spotify’s 2021 and 2020 most streamed artist worldwide, he certainly has the accolades to prove it (IMDb, n.d). Unlike artists that use conformity to white-washed music standards as a stepping stool for success, Bad Bunny has reached such great heights by unapologetically emphasizing his Puerto Rican and Dominican roots. In his own words, central to his self-brand are his culture, language, and jargon (Valerio, 2022). [1] The music videos for “I Like It” (off of Cardi B’s 2018 album Invasion of Privacy , featuring Bad Bunny) and “La Romana” (off of Bad Bunny’s 2018 album X 100PRE ) are in line with this emphasis on Latinx visibility, centering visuals of quotidian Lat...

  TikTok: An app where you can become famous for doing anything. Can you imagine becoming famous overnight for just posting a video on the social media platform TikTok? This is what happened to TikTok star Charli D’Amelio. She is an 18-year-old TikToker who became known for her dance videos on the platform in 2019. Before she became famous, she was a competitive dancer who lived in Connecticut. After some fame, she moved to Los Angeles, California for business opportunities. The majority of her TikTok content and theme is dancing, which she has been doing since she was three years old. Her intended audience is Gen Z, the 13 to 19-year-olds. She directs a lot of her videos to a mature enough audience like them. Younger children might know Charli and her videos, but they are not her intended audience since, in her talking videos, she acts as if she is talking to people her age. Charli D’Amelio falls under some theories explained in class like standardization, male gaze, and coolhunti...

  Mr. Beast Continues to Impress How often are the videos you choose to search online directed right to YouTube? Since YouTube is the second most popular social media platform across the world, more often than not. Jimmy Donaldson from Greenville, North Carolina has the fifth largest following on YouTube at 110 million subscribers. He was given his first Gamertag, Mr. Beast, randomly and has kept the name since. Crystal Abidin would argue Mr. Beast is categorized as an influencer because he is just another “ordinary internet user who accumulates a relatively large following…” (Abidin, 2015, para 1). In 2012, he began his YouTube career with a blank slate, just like every other internet user. He started with video game content but did not achieve success. However, in 2017 he began to blow up for his unordinary stunts, such as spending fifty hours being buried alive. As he continued to grow in popularity, he became wealthier and started spending more money on strange but entertaining...

The animated film Mulan produced by Walt Disney Pictures in 1998, follows the story of a young woman, Fa Mulan, who impersonates a man to join the Chinese Imperial Army instead of her injured father. Mulan’s courage and heroism inspired young women to believe they can do anything that men can and more. When I heard about the live-action remake of Mulan , I was overjoyed that one of my favorite Disney movies would have a second life. My expectations crumbled when I learned that some of the original’s key features would not be in the remake, but I hoped these changes were in service of accurate cultural representation and adjusted to the social environment in 2020. I am eager to explore how the remake’s adherence to or deviation from the animated film Mulan’s representation. The 1998 version of Mulan is based on a Chinese poem, “Ballad of Mulan”, from 400 AD which was shared orally before it was recorded on paper (Naudus). Recounting the story through film, a form of digital reproductio...

  Introducing GirlBossTown: The Internet’s Agent Robyn DelMonte, better known as @girlbosstown on social media, is a TikTok influencer who calls herself the “Internet’s Agent” (McCourt, 2022). DelMonte is a 28-year-old from New Hampshire who is a master of celebrity life and pop culture (McCourt, 2022). In 2021, she started posting TikTok videos and went viral. In her content, she proposes creative public relations and marketing ideas for different celebrities, influencers, and brands. While Abidin’s definition of influencers is focused on those based in Singapore, the same ideas can be applied to analyze DelMonte as an influencer. DelMonte is an influencer because she is an “everyday ordinary” person “who [has] accumulated a large following” (Abidin, 2015). As she sat on her couch making videos about her favorite celebrities, she soon amassed a large following. As of November 2022, she has 580.6K followers and 65.9M collective likes on her TikTok page. Additionally, DelMonte inter...